Barcelona’s Santa Caterina Market has a new bar from Michelin-starred chefs Sergio and Javier Torres, who have opened Parada Torres with a focus on classic tapas, stews and lower prices than their other restaurants.
The brothers say the idea was to return to the kind of Barcelona they grew up with. Their grandmother, Catalina, who taught them to cook, used to visit the market often, and her photograph is on display in the bar. Javier Torres said, “It’s the bar we owed to Barcelona.”
Parada Torres sits in three former stalls on the left side of the market and has room for 40 seated guests. The 440-square-metre space mixes market details with a traditional bar feel, with terrazzo floors, steel tables and jars of preserves on show. A terrace opposite the bar is expected to be busy at weekends.
The menu uses produce from the market and keeps to familiar dishes. Starters include Russian salad with pickled sea bass for 12.5 euros, cod esqueixada for 11.9 euros, grilled escalivada for 9.8 euros and Soria torrezno for 11.9 euros. Other dishes include garlic mushrooms, ham croquettes, battered white prawns, hook-caught squid, chicken pinchos morunos, a beef pepito, veal fricandó and Cardenal macaroni.
Desserts include Catalan cream, cheesecake, Tatin with toffee and grilled mini xuixos with aniseed. Ramon Rodríguez, director of Pantea Group, which co-owns the bar, said more dishes and proper stools are still to come, and that off-menu specials will also highlight products from the market stalls.
Santa Caterina Market itself is one of Barcelona’s best-known food halls, with its wavy roof and 2005 renovation by Benedetta Tagliabue and Enric Miralles, alongside artist Toni Comella. The market introduced measures in 2018 to limit excessive tourism. Parada Torres opens daily from 12:00 to 00:00, and until 01:00 on Fridays and Saturdays. For more on the market, see our report on Santa Caterina Market stallholders demanding security, and our Community coverage.
Originally published by El País Barcelona. Read the source article at El País.
